Marcus Williams Gets Distracted

I heard someone say that Marcus Williams made the worst playoff defensive play in history the day after the Minneapolis Miracle happened. My gut instinct was to think “Naw, that’s just recency bias hyperbole”. But then I thought about it a little bit, and while I still feel like I have to be forgetting something…I can’t think of a worse defensive play in the playoffs.

Leon Lett sprung to mind, with his mistake against the Bills. But that fumble didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The Bills still got annihilated. This whiffed tackle literally cost the Saints the win. It directly lost the game. Yes, had he tackled Diggs, the Vikings may have won with a field goal, but the chances are much slimmer. Most great plays in the playoffs we think of as fantastic plays, not terrible ones. This is the worst defensive play I can think of off the top of my head. This poor dude is going to be fending off jokes and harassment about this play for the rest of his career, possibly his life. I genuinely feel bad for Marcus Williams. Also, I don’t want to take anything away from Diggs, he did everything right, and it was amazing.

At the same time holy shit what a finish. That’s one for the record books.

I’m super happy for the Vikings and I want them to win it all (A Jags/Vikes SB is my dream scenario, NE/PHI the nightmare) and it was nice to see the Vikings on the positive side of a miracle for once. I was all ready to write the choking comic for the Vikes but then…they swallowed! That was a bad way to put that.

Since I tend to write from the perspective of the victim with my jokes I spent a lot more time thinking about the Saints and Williams. We kind of forget that for all the Vikings playoff tragedy, the Saints have actually had quite a number of heartbreaks themselves. The Beastquake, the Catch 3, the Minneapolis Miracle. 3 of the best playoff moments of the last decade have come at the expense of the Saints and if they didn’t sneak in that SB win in ’09 we’d be talking about how snake-bitten this team is. When you have plays against you that are nicknamed, that stuff sticks around forever.

The Saints had a miracle of a season and shouldn’t feel too bad all in all. They have a recipe to keep Drew Brees around now (That run game, bah gawd) for at least a few years. We will likely see them again here soon. But in the meantime…way to blow it! Hahahahaha.

Instant classic. That was one of those games that reminds you of how good football can be.

EDIT: Some folks have reminded me of some other bad plays, namely the Tebow overtime TD against the Steelers and the Rahim Moore whiff against the Ravens. The Tebow play wasn’t great defense but I don’t think it was necessarily a mistake, more DT just outrunning a bad safety who possibly took a bad route, but I buy this argument enough. I don’t buy the Rahim Moore miss simply because while it was a bigger mistake, it didn’t directly lose the Broncos the game, just forced overtime.

The only defensive play that is even close to being as bad as this from recent years is from 2012, when the Ravens played the Broncos. 40 seconds left, 3rd & 3, Ravens down by 7 and Flacco throws deep to Jacoby Jones and Broncos safety Rahim Moore completely misjudged the ball’s trajectory. Ravens tied and then eventually won the game in OT.

The one that immediately came to my mind was Rahim Moore in the final seconds of Ravens/Broncos in 2013. Although that was also a last-second TD pass, it only tied the game. So it didn’t directly cause the Broncos to lose, because they went on to lose in double-OT. But still, amazingly bad defensive play in a scenario where the ONLY play the Ravens could run was a hail mary-type pass.

The Saints also have the River City Relay that knocked them out of the playoffs in week 17 of 2003… sure, later events in the 4:00 games would have eliminated them anyway, but I always enjoy re-watching the RCR just to hear the announcer blow up over the missed extra point.

The only excuse I can make for Williams is that he was trying to do too much. (Yes, it’s still stupid but still, it makes more sense that him intentionally missing the tackle.) All he really needed to do was contest the throw. At worst it’s a questionable PI call and you can blame the refs in the end. Instead, he opted to go for the hit stick on Diggs’ leg and wiffed so badly that, well, that happened. That’s what happens when you try too hard to be the hero I guess.

In an interview Marcus Williams said he was a little early and I believe he was worried about getting a pass interference penalty. Possibly the last play of the game. Vikings still may have had time to kick the field goal. Maybe it was nerves? Keenum and Diggs made a great play to win the game. Honestly, this was an enjoyable playoff game that was played by two teams with great players.

The Gecko was cute, but I think you shoulda had him chasing the Lucky Charms leprechaun instead. I really looks like he veers off at the last second (diving after a squirrel that caught his eye or something…)

Karma, right? Ugh, I had accepted the lose, then that came up. Suddenly, the worst tackle I’ve ever seen at any level of football (I’ve seen 3rd graders tackle better than that) doesn’t look as bad. The coach who taunts fans with THEIR move gets burned immediately thereafter….

WHY, DAVE, WHY???? Comedy, they say, is tragedy plus time. This is too fresh. The pain is real man. The pain is real. I mean, congratulations to the Vikings for making an incredible play. They won it because they fought for it. My Saints had a great season (when compared to expectations). Battling back from a 17-0 halftime deficit against that defense, I thought we had it. I honestly still feel numb. I’m not mad though. Just shocked. The Vikings are a great team and I think Keenum is finally getting the shot he deserves. If nothing else, that was the playoff game we all wanted and needed.

My wife is a Saints fan. I was hoping for a Jags v. Saints Super Bowl. She would have likely been on board with the money I am willing to spend visiting frigid Minnesota in February. You blew it Williams! Arrggh.

Thank god someone pointed this out. This easily beats almost anything Leon Lett has pulled out of his ass (with the exclusion of the Dolphins field goal thing. That was bad). This is a major “what-if” moment in recent memory. If Marcus Williams managed to wait half a second then he probably would’ve laid out Stefon Diggs and maybe even knocked the ball loose, causing an incompletion

Yea.. somehow lost in this is the fact that this is a re-occuring thing for the Saints.
*Goes away to check real number*
Counting back to 2006 counting all games where the Saints took the lead with 5 minutes or less remaining – the Saints have loss 15 of those games including 2 playoff games.

He openly proclaimed he’d root for the Patriots last year, if they happened to go against the Cowboys in the Super Bowl(which seemed so likely at the time…). I don’t think replacing the Cowboys with the Eagles would change anything, since it seems Dave hates both of them equally.

Neither one had the Colts 20 seconds away from eating the W. Only the Falcons loss is worse and maybe the 1998 Vikings loss (watch that replay sometime), and if I’m being honest with myself – the Alex Smith 2011 loss – only because that team was better than the 2017 one, and the Minnesota 2009 loss are about on par with this one. Not sure where to put the Music City Miracle Bills but only because that team wasn’t that good and probably would’ve been blown out anyways…
5/6 games I could mention featured the Saints, Falcons or Vikings (and sometimes both). Why is that? Win one of those teams beats another does the curse transfer (please oh please let that be the case).

The 2015 Divisional round comes to mind. Namely the entire secondary of the Packers A) Leaving Fitzgerald in space and B) Whiffing on tackling him when half the defense was in a position to do so comes to mind. 75 yard gain on the first snap of overtime made scoring for the Cards almost automatic.